1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus including image pickup devices having sensitivity, namely a detection range, in a visible light region and an infrared light region.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, image pickup devices such as CCDs (Charge-Coupled Device) and CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) sensors have sensitivity in not only visible light but also infrared light. When an infrared cut filter is not used, such image pickup devices output signals where the visible light and the infrared light are mixed together. Such signals have lighter color and therefore the color reproducibility thereof is low.
However, depending on the characteristics of the image pickup devices and how an analog-to-digital conversion processing is performed, a pixel value reaches a saturation value in a spot brighter than a certain level. In such a case, actual luminance may not come out properly. When infrared light components are subtracted from such saturated pixel values, the pixel value after the subtraction is unduly dark and subducting and therefore such a spot appears as noise.